'33 Postcards' Set for 8,000 Screens in China

SYDNEY -- Pauline Chan’s 33 Postcards, an official Chinese-Australian co-production, will get the widest release possible for a feature film in China on 8,000 screens next month.

A Mandarin version of the film, which stars Guy Pearce, Claudia Karvan, Shu Lin and Lincoln Lewis and was shot simultaneously in English, will be released on Sept. 2 there.

33 Postcards tells of 16-year-old Chinese orphan Mei Mei (Zhu Lin) who comes to Australia to meet her sponsor, Dean Randall (Guy Pearce) whose life turns out to be less postcard-perfect than she had imagined. Initially mismatched and disconnected – the two begin a journey in search of belonging and family.

Shot in New South Wales and at the Hengdian World Studios in China, 33 Postcards, was directed by Pauline Chan and produced by Portal Pictures and Zhejiang Hengdian Film Productions, in association with IFS Capital Limited and Screen NSW.

33 Postcards had its world premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in June, followed by its international premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival in the same month, where actress Zhu Lin received the Shanghai International Film Festival Asian New Talent Award for her debut performance.

The film will be released in Australia and New Zealand later this year through Titan View while Arclight is handling international sales

As an official coproduction 33 Postcards gets an automatic release in China, although such wide releases are not always guaranteed.

News of 33 Postcards’ Chinese release comes as producers guild, the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA), officially launches the Australia-China Screen Alliance, this week. It will assist both Australian and Chinese film and television producers navigate co-productions between the countries.